1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for electronic payment via a telecommunications network. It also relates to a payment server and to means for redirecting messages by said electronic payment system.
A particularly advantageous application of the invention lies in the field of electronic commerce.
2. Description of Related Art
The development of telecommunications via the worldwide Web (the “Web”) and the Internet has had the consequence of promoting electronic commerce on a vast scale. In general, a transaction in electronic commerce takes place by means of an electronic payment system via the telecommunications network, in this case the Web, between a vendor having a server connected to said network and a client having navigation and electronic payment means suitable for establishing a connection over the network with the vendor's server and for making a payment to said vendor. As a general rule, the navigation and electronic payment means are constituted by a computer, e.g. a PC type microcomputer, used as means for navigating the network, and by a reader of payment smart cards connected to said computer and performing the electronic payment function.
Naturally, transactions performed over the telecommunications network must be made highly secure so as to avoid any interception of messages exchanged between the vendor, the client, and the remote payment administrator, and to proceed with all of the verifications of authentication that are necessary. Thus, various secure payment protocols have been proposed, such as the “Secure Electronic Transaction” (SET) protocol. In this context, the vendor's server is configured to be capable of implementing the selected secure payment protocol. Similarly, at the client end, said secure payment protocol is included in client software for handling payment installed on the client's computer, and which, in addition to ensuring that transactions are secure, is capable of performing other operations, such as handling audit trails, and it possesses an interface with the smart card reader in order to take account of the extension to the SET protocol which makes it possible to use such smart cards.
Nevertheless, the presently known electronic payment systems as described above present a certain number of drawbacks. Installing a large piece of software such as the client software for handling payment on the client's computer gives rise to problems with downloading, with updating, and with the amount of memory occupied and the amount of hard disk occupied. Furthermore, the system is fully installed on a fixed station, i.e. the computer, and that can impede client mobility.